Zoom’s Eric Yuan says everybody wants to return to the office. It is a strange admission from the founder of a company whose success is inextricably linked to the pandemic-fuelled rise in working from home. But Zoom knows it has to show no fear about workplaces reopening if it wants to protect its $119bn equity value.
The video call software company’s growth last year will probably never be repeated. Annual sales quadrupled to $2.65bn in the 12 months to January 31, as lockdowns forced millions of people to log into virtual meetings from their dwellings. The app was downloaded nearly half a billion times according to Apptopia — twice as many times as Google’s video chat app. Competitive pricing and an easy-to-use interface countered early privacy problems.
A post-pandemic slowdown is inevitable. But Zoom wants to convince investors that in-person meetings can be seamlessly combined with video calls via conference software Zoom Rooms. It is also promoting Zoom Phone, a RingCentral-like cloud phone system. It projects sales will rise 43 per cent in the current fiscal year — a significant deceleration.